


Usurped

by distractionpie



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Adoptable, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Idea amnesty, M/M, Misunderstandings, Notfic, Outline/notes format, background queliot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27122884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distractionpie/pseuds/distractionpie
Summary: When Eliot disappears into Fillory, Margo goes after him and is ready to fight a war against the High King she believes to be behind his disappearance.But the High King is nowhere to be seen, and despite her intentions, it's far harder to stay enemies with his wife.
Relationships: Fen/Margo Hanson
Kudos: 5
Collections: Good Intentions: Abandoned and Unfinished WIPs





	Usurped

**Author's Note:**

> Normally when I have a good fic idea that I know won't get written I hold on to it to see if I can adapt parts in the future for other characters or fandoms, but this one is so specific to the Magicians it's not really recyclable so when I saw there was an idea abandoning event running I figured why not tidy up my notes and let this one free.

Due to some event which makes this universe a little sideways of canon, Eliot goes to Fillory but doesn't return, Margo searches for him and gears rumours of the High King of Fillory. Clearly the bastard has kidnapped her boy so she's gonna go after him. Finds that the High King’s castle is easily conquered because he's away on a quest, oh, and he's left his pregnant wife behind. 

The High King’s wife. But not the queen. Interesting. Or possibly offensive. Even in backwards Earth monarchies the king’s wife usually got to be the queen and given that, if the books were accurate, Fillory usually had multiple kings and queens and was apparently lacking in that department 

_ “Only children of earth have ever been King or Queens in Fillory,” she explains, but Margo isn’t sure she believes the King’s wife’s casual acceptance that she’s not entitled to Queendom. After all, a woman who marries a king is unlikely to be lacking in ambition. _

But handily, apparently nobody is pushing back against Margo because as a  girl woman from earth, the Fillorians consider it perfectly reasonable for her to fill one of the empty Queen spots and if she’s got it in for the High King, well, that’s a royal matter and none of their business.

She spends a while getting ‘her’ court in order, trying to secure some loyalty for when she does find and take out the High King for whatever he’s done to Eliot. Initially she’s very suspicious of Fen who must surely be an enemy as the wife of that man Margo is planning to attack and, if necessary, depose and kill (depending on what he’s done to Eliot).

But then one of Margo’s newly cultivated court contacts reveals Fen’s history with FU, how she’d been married off to the new High King and initially supplying information about him to her outside contacts but then gradually drifting from them as she’d warmed up to the High King.

_ Margo frowned. Arranged marriage. She should have considered that. It explained a lot about how Fen lacked the ruthlessness she’d expect from the kind of gold digging social climber to nab the current only king in Fillory. But it raises serious questions about her loyalty.  _

All of this makes Fen more interesting but also still suspicious as hell to Margo, who can’t get her head around why Fen would: tolerate a forced marriage at all, warm up to the man she’d been forced to marry, not make any move to take her husband’s power despite having previously held seemingly strong convictions about Fillorian self-governance, is also tolerating Margo’s power moves despite that being at odds with Fen’s attachment to either her husband or Fillorian rule. Is this chick seriously so wishy washy that she’ll just go ahead and agree with whoever is nearest?

Except since Fen is both her easiest hostage against the High King and her biggest potential threat if Fen did get into her head to rally the Fillorian loyalists around her Margo has to get deal with her because keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

And that’s how she learns that Fen is a) pregnant and b) definitely not a complete pushover, she’s accepting Margo as Queen and for some ridiculous reason thinks the High King will to when he returns because having all the thrones occupied will solve some of the magical issues in Fillory, but basically has the same view as the other Fillorians that inter-royal conflicts are a Children of Earth matter, and she’s quite happy to work with Margo for the good of Fillory in the interim.

_ Fen stabbed the knife --and where had that even come from-- into the map, leaving it quivering between Tick’s fingers. _

_ Oh. _

_ Oh. Now there was a side of Fen Margo wanted to know better. _

And Fen knows Fillory which means she’s far more useful than half remembered and apparently heavily sanitised children’s stories for helping Margo get to grips with Fillory’s circumstances.

They grow closer and at some point Margo starts to realise she doesn’t just like and respect Fen but is attracted to her which is a bit of a shock because:

_ She wants to bone her best friend’s probable kidnapper’s preggo wife. Margo had always considered herself open minded and but this is pretty fucking out there, even for her. _

_ One relief is that a few self reflection sessions in the bath have her concluding that she has the hots for Fen regardless of how knocked up she is rather than a previously undiscovered kink.  _

_ Which is only semi-reassuring. _

_ After all Fen isn’t remotely her type, cute and sweet sure, but Margo has never been into that. _

But Margo is a problem solver and rather than pining or getting weird over it she talks about it in indirect terms and learns about Fillorian royal marriages including the potential polygamy.

_ “Wait he was going to marry someone else and he didn't even consult you?” _

_ “It is the High King's right to take a husband if he choses,” but something in her tone suggested Margo had found a point on which the king has stretched his wife's loyalty.  _

And straight up asks Fen if she wants to sideline her absentee unwanted husband and be Margo’s consort instead

“ _ Why should he get one of each and you be stuck with him?” _

And Fillorian sexual mores allow for that, so Fen and Margo are kind of a thing even though Margo is still a bit judging herself for the whole banging a pregnant chick thing.

But the due date is growing close and closer and Fen is worried about the pregnancy. Margo doesn’t really want her enemy to have a convenient heir but the pregnancy going well is important for Fen’s physical and mental health and 

_ She wasn't losing her main hostage to some preventable bullshit just because Fillory hadn’t invented gynaecology yet _

So when the time comes rather than fucking about with talking animal midwives who barely seem to know how human births work, Margo decides if she’s waited this long for the High King to come back from his quest and give her the intel she needs on Eliot it’s probably not gonna happen in the next few days and takes Fen back to earth for proper medical treatment

_ Fen is wide eyed and neither of them is dressed appropriately for earth, but this is New York so they’ll probably just look like crazy tourists. _

The whole experience is a bit weird

_ Which... yeah, she supposes that Fen’s awe and wonder at basic modern technology probably raises a few red flags. But the way the nurse is looking at Margo, like she’s expecting her to start spilling some sister-wives sob story, just pisses her off. _

But the birth goes well.

_ “She’s so frail...” _

_ Fen’s eyes say what Margo has been thinking ever since she laid eyes on the tiny form in the plastic box. If they’d been in Fillory perhaps Fen would have made it, but the baby? No. Without Margo the baby wouldn’t have lived to see one world never mind two. _

_ The heir of her enemy. Fen’s daughter. _

_ Margo had saved her by bringing her here, and she looks at that little screwed up red face, exactly as gross as Margo has always viewed babies, and knows she’ll do anything to protect her. _

They go back to Fillory and they’re all domestic and shit but then Margo hears news of the High King’s return and 

_ Fen’s trust in Margo didn't change her inexplicable loyalty to her husband and since Margo wasn't going to give any quarter to the man behind Eliot's disappearance it was best that Fen was kept from being in a position where she might have to choose between her loyalties.  _

So Fen and the baby are under house arrest and Margo goes out to face the high king and demand he return Eliot.

Only to find herself face to face with Eliot who hadn’t returned to earth because he’d become high king, plus some misunderstandings around the earth/fillory time difference, Quentin (who is with Eliot) had messed up the math and assumed they’d only be gone a few days in earth time.

There are confrontations, Margo is pissed that Eliot made her worry, Eliot is reeling that Margo has basically taken over Fillory in his absence (but also pretty relieved to have had somebody else deal with so many of it’s problems)

_ “I left Fen in charge.” _

_ “One pregnant ex-village girl surrounded by of scheming courtiers and up against all the enemies Fillory made while being ruled by the Beast? Real well thought out plan, El.” _

_ “Fen’s pregnant?” _

_ “Yeah, she was.” _

_ “Was?” Quentin echoed with a furrowed brow, and if Margo thought that Eliot had paled at the revelation of Fen’s pregnancy it was nothing compared to this. _

_ For a moment she didn’t understand the looks on both their faces but then, “Oh for fucks sake, did both you bozos sleep through the parts of sex ed that weren't about getting off? You've been gone nearly a year, of course she’s not pregnant anymore.” _

If she’s fine then why isn’t she greeting Eliot.

_ “Wait, why did you lock up my wife?” _

_ Margo rolled her eyes. As if she were the unreasonable one here. “Eliot, why do you  _ have  _ a wife?” _

And then everything gets hashed out. Eliot finds it hilarious that Margo usurped his kingdom and his wife. Eliot and Margo stay high king and queen, Quentin is the other king, and they find a way around the rule to Fen can be the other Queen and between the four of them actually manage a functioning kingdom.

In a very un-Magicians like fashion, **everyone lives happily ever after**.


End file.
